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[bob]

This is the latest build of MC30 for Linux.  Please post bugs here.  Please start a new thread for anything requiring discussion.  Non-bug posts will be deleted.

Download:
Linux AMD64: https://files.jriver.com/mediacenter/channels/v30/latest/MediaCenter-30.0.67-amd64.deb
Linux ARM64: https://files.jriver.com/mediacenter/channels/v30/latest/MediaCenter-30.0.67-arm64.deb
Linux ARMHF: https://files.jriver.com/mediacenter/channels/v30/latest/MediaCenter-30.0.67-armhf.deb
Linux i386: https://files.jriver.com/mediacenter/channels/v30/latest/MediaCenter-30.0.67.deb

Also in the latest and beta repos.

30.0.67 (2/23/2023)

1. NEW: Added the "Video Scan" field to indicate if a video is "Progressive" or "Interlaced".
2. Changed: Audio with odd sample rates will be automatically resampled to a common rate.
3. Changed: When the SSRC resampler fails to load (due to an unsupported sample rate), SoX will be used instead.
4. Changed: When the FormatNumber expression crops a value to 0 because of the decimal places, the empty display will be shown.
5. NEW: Added a Decimal expression function to convert to dot for a number.
6. Changed: Made the expression editor popup remember window positioning.
7. Changed: Updated the default tag window templates with the new video fields.
8. Changed: Importing/Exporting all tag window templates will write the correct template version, and validate it on import.
9. Changed: Made the sign of zero from the math evaluator output 1 (instead of 0).
10. NEW: Added a customization option to the Tag window to show All Fields With Values (including read-only fields).
11. NEW: Added the ability to customize the flush after stop issued to VST plugins.
12. Fixed: When showing television guide by time in Theater View ("This evening", "Tomorrow morning", "Tomorrow afternoon", etc.) a random program could be selected when entering the grid view, instead of the program showing at the upper left corner.
13. Changed: Slovak translation updated (thanks Peter Lukac).
14. Changed: Updated German translation file (thanks Bytestar).
15. Changed: The ConvertDate expression function accepts more than one parameter again and just ignores everything after the first (unless it's 3 or 6 since that's the new format).
16. Changed: Theater View web page keyboard control: Escape key now acts as "back" and mouse cursor movement is accelerated when holding down on directional arrow keys.
17. Fixed: Various improvements to AC-4 audio decoding, including fixed channel mapping and improvements to audio timing to reduce glitches in playback.
18. Changed: Updated FFmpeg to 5.1, used for file analysis and transcoding.
19. NEW: Video Analysis can now identify "immersive" Atmos and DTS:X audio tracks.
20. NEW: Crop (Black Bar) detection has been added to Video Analysis.
21. Fixed: Video analysis would not fill the "HDR Mastering Color Space" field.
22. Fixed: Running "Analyse Video" or "Update Library (from Tags)" on Video files could reset the rating stored in the database.
23. Changed: Updated to Monkey's Audio 9.15.  Faster AVX assembly runs on all Intel platforms, AVX-512 is used when available, and speed-ups across the board.
24. Changed: Updated Greek translation (thanks Panagiotis).
25. Changed: Added sorting of phrases to the translation files (and updated all translations).
26. Changed: VST plugins are only checked for VST3 if the bundle is VST3.
27. NEW: Added option for Theater View web pages to display full screen with the direction arrows and OK/Enter controlling the mouse.
28. Fixed: TV engine erroneously returned a failure code when initializing a Sat>IP device on Mac/Linux OS's, causing playback to fail.
29. Changed: Playing a video from a library server with conversion will use the progressive HTTP streaming support if possible (when a MPEG-TS format is selected).
30. NEW: Running MCC commands from the launcher can take a string by surrounding with single quotes (example: mc30 /MCC 22043,'Video\YouTube').
31. NEW: Added MCC MCC_THEATER_VIEW_PATH (22043) to allow selecting a path in Theater View.
32: NEW: Added a Library Tool to run extended Video Analysis.
33. Fixed: Corrected a typo in the compare dates expression tooltip.
34. Changed: Changed the compare dates tooltip to better translate.
35. Changed: Additional optimization of Theater View television guide display speed.
36. Changed: Updated Greek translation (thanks Panagiotis).
37. Changed: Updated all translations to the latest strings from the code.  Also made the translation tool not output the same header multiple times in a row.
38. Changed: Removed the custom expressions from the default Theater View Television Guide setup since they are now handled differently and more efficiently.
39. NEW: Playing Now button on Spotlight page allows you to add the track to the Spotlight Favorites playlist.
40. Optimized: Theater View television guide display is much faster.
41. NEW: Added new video metadata fields, as well as filling those fields during import.
42. Fixed: Making a disc backup of a DVD using MakeMKV would cause a crash.
43. NEW: Added a the ability to pass a year, month, day, hour, minute, and second to the ConvertDate expression function.
44. Changed: IPlugFrame is implemented for VST3 and a resize is issued when called for.
45. Changed: Slightly improved Theater View TV guide display speed.
46. Changed: Made playback loop back to the beginning when it stops at the end of a playlist.
47. Changed: Locate on disk is available on Library Server Clients again when local file access is available.
48. Changed: Update Library (from tags) & Update Tags (from library) are available with Library Server Clients again, with added checks to prevent issues when local file access is not possible.
49. Fixed: Picking Import All in the Tag window customize dialog then cancelling would corrupt the display.
50. Changed: Update Library (from tags) & Update Tags (from library) are no longer available on Library Server and DLNA Clients, as direct file access is required.
51. Changed: Locate on disk is no longer available on Library Server and DLNA Clients, as direct file access is required.
52. Changed: Disable some functions which won't work with DLNA connected libraries. Fix one that should.
53. Changed: Made Google date lookup work a little better.
54. Changed: Add logging to VST3 plugin function call failures.
55. Changed: VST3 force a layout on resize, fall back to current size if resize isn't supported.
56. Changed: VST3 let the plugin know we support resize.

30.0.55 (1/26/2023)

1. Fixed: Picking Import All in the Tag window customize dialog then cancelling would corrupt the display.
2. Changed: Update Library (from tags) & Update Tags (from library) are no longer available on Library Server and DLNA Clients, as direct file access is required.
3. Changed: Locate on disk is no longer available on Library Server and DLNA Clients, as direct file access is required.
4. Changed: Disable some functions which won't work with DLNA connected libraries. Fix one that should.
5. Changed: Reworked the year calculation (y) in CompareDates to be based on the years and days apart.
6. Changed: The reverse sync when building library server sync uses the copied library as well to avoid lags.
7. Changed: Cancel of the library server sync thread was not working nicely.
8. Changed: When building deltas for library server sync, the library is copied to avoid lags.
9. NEW: Added "yd" to the CompareDates expression function to output the number of years and days between dates.
10. Fixed: The string "Unrated" could not be translated.
11. Changed: Updated Czech translation (thanks Jan Boháč).
12. Fixed: The title of the OSD commands could not be translated.
13. NEW: Added a CompareDates expression function to compare by year, days, or calendar years.
14. Changed: Date lookup from Google was no longer working.
15. NEW: Windows are created with the background color to eliminate white flashes.

30.0.51 (1/20/2023)

1. Changed: Values in parenthesis are removed during lyrics lookup (just like we were doing with braces already).
2. NEW: In Theater View television Guide, the TV channel on the left side of the guide grid will be marked as selected when a corresponding program is selected.
3. Changed: Updated Chinese (simplified) translation file (thanks YanJun Sun).
4. Changed: Updated all translations to the latest strings from the code.
5. Changed: Updated German translation file (thanks Bytestar).
6. Fixed: The extra channels selection would not be used when filling the channels for the Parametric Equalizer.
7. Fixed: M4A files using audio codecs handled by the video engine did not play.
8. Fixed: The Tag menu had an incorrect spelling of "Refresh".
9. Fixed: The "Edit Image" command (possible because of the MRU menu items) will disable when images are not selected.
10. Fixed: Installing a license running a portable install was not working.
11. Fixed: Volume names for DVD's and BD's for makemkv ripping are taken from the block device since distros and desktops are inconsistent about mounting optical volumes with regards to mount path.
12. Fixed: We were refreshing Optical volumes unnecessarily in some cases.

30.0.48 (1/9/2023)

1. Fixed: The start time column was not correct for sunrise or sunset scheduled tasks.
2. Fixed: The "Link To Playlist" menu would draw & characters in playlist names as underlines.
3. Fixed: "Get Movies & TV Info" failed to save cover art image if the file has a long path.
4. Changed: If XMLTV file specifies that a TV program is a "series", but does not provide a series name in addition to an episode name, the episode name will be copied into "Series" field, instead of leaving it empty.
5. Changed: When running "Get Movie & TV Info" tool, a TV Show that has no Series name but its Keywords field contains the word "Series", the show name will be copied into "Series" field so that "Get Movie & TV Info" can proceed.
6. Fixed: PostData was being discarded when cross platform databases were being used. This resulted in being unable to play SACD tracks > track 1 when a client and server MC instance were not of the same OS when one of the OS is Windows.

30.0.47 (1/5/2023)

1. Changed: Gridlines were showing in places they were not meant to so reverted the global change.  Please report any place not showing gridlines that should.
2. Changed: Updated the image preview zoom and unzoom images (thanks Harley).
3. NEW: MJP files support an INSTALLTRACKINFO action so there is no need to copy files manually.
4. Changed: Zooming into an image will stop the animated zooming at start since that could fight with the zoom command.
5. Changed: The 3D image viewer no longer changes images on big scrolls off the screen.
6. Changed: The list group box header image is no longer drawn in the image editor toolbox for the bottom controls.
7. Fixed: The image editor better updates on skin changes.
8. NEW: Sunrise and sunset times can be used in the scheduler for events.
9. NEW: Added an Adjust Dates/Times dialog that modifies the Date tag of multiple files at once.
10. NEW: MJP files can have a list of packages to install and Package Installer will install all of them.
11. Fixed: Opening the image editor in a locked view would switch to a new tab, then show the start page when closed.
12. Fixed: The magnifying glass on image thumbnails would not size with scale nicely.
13. Changed: When loading EPG from an existing XMLTV or Perc Data file in a setup wizard or EPG loading wizard, the loading is done in a background worker thread and the progress is shown in the wizard window.
14. Fixed: Editing a cover art image and doing a cancel could save the changes anyway.
15. Fixed: The gridline setting is applied a little more widely.
16. Fixed: The first and last image commands were not working during image playback.
17. Changed: Left and right scroll an image instead of change images (use Page Up / Page Down to change).
18. Fixed: The scroll commands in the image playback right click were not working.

30.0.45 (12/22/2022)

1. Fixed: PNG files using a color palette with transparency did not display properly.
2. Changed: In Theater View "Tuner Status" is now only accessible in Guide view, and no longer available in other video views.
3. NEW: During television setup, there is a checkbox to optionally download channel logo files (if available online) in a background thread after setup is complete.
4. NEW: CDText lookup supported (if the CD contains it).
5. Fixed: On systems with no optical drive we won't query for status (avoid log spam).
6. Changed: Better detection of different types of optical media leading to more efficient handling.
7. Changed: More logging info for optical disc detection.
8. Changed: More control functions added to MC's linux CdIo library to bring it into line with windows and Mac supported functionality.

[mwillems]

I'm seeing repeatable crashes to desktop with one of my systems with this build.  Most of my systems run Arch Linux and are working just fine with this build, but my main HTPC runs Debian Stable and is crashing every four or five minutes during playback, typically about ten to thirty seconds after a song changes.  Specifically, a second or two after a song changes, the UI will freeze for a bit while music will continue to play, and then MC crashes to desktop.  I noticed it originally in theater view, but I can get the same crash in standard view playing audio so it probably isn't graphics related?  Reverting back to 20.0.51 30.0.51 results in stable playback and no crashes.

I managed to create a log tracking from the start of playback up to a crash (attached), but it seems to stop logging before the track change so maybe the issue is happening before then?  The system is Debian stable using the Gnome desktop environment.  The computer has NVidia graphics hardware if that's relevant at all (an older 960, I think?) and runs a pretty old CPU (an i7-2600k), but it has been perfectly stable up through build 51.  Let me know if you need any additional system info or testing.

[JimH]

Reverting back to 20.0.51 results in stable playback and no crashes.

30.0.51 ?

Any VST plug-ins active?

Plenty of disk space for logging?

[mwillems]

30.0.51 ?

Sorry, yes, I meant 30.0.51!

Any VST plug-ins active?

No VSTs

Plenty of disk space for logging?

Yep, about a 100GB free on the system drive.

[bob]

Sorry, yes, I meant 30.0.51!

No VSTs

Yep, about a 100GB free on the system drive.

Where is the library?
Do you have any handheld devices?
How about any CD's?
As you said the biggest change is in the video but I don't see that affecting you.

You might try running it under gdb. It will provide a stack backtrace on crash even if it's not a full symbolic one that info can be useful

Install gdb (on debian: sudo apt-get install gdb)
Then from a command line as the normal user
gdb mediacenter30
When it loads you do
run
When it crashes you can get a stack trace by doing
bt full

[mwillems]

Where is the library?

It's a client to a remote server so I think it's using the server's library?  I was wondering if this might be related to the new delta sync stuff introduced in 55 since the issue went away when going back to 51.  It seemed to happen at track change when the client reached back to update the server on play counts.

Do you have any handheld devices?

None that are attached. 

How about any CD's?

None in the drive

You might try running it under gdb. It will provide a stack backtrace on crash even if it's not a full symbolic one that info can be useful

Install gdb (on debian: sudo apt-get install gdb)
Then from a command line as the normal user
gdb mediacenter30
When it loads you do
run
When it crashes you can get a stack trace by doing
bt full

I'll try that tonight when I'm off work and post back.

[bob]

It's a client to a remote server so I think it's using the server's library?  I was wondering if this might be related to the new delta sync stuff introduced in 55 since the issue went away when going back to 51.  It seemed to happen at track change when the client reached back to update the server on play counts.

None that are attached. 

None in the drive

I'll try that tonight when I'm off work and post back.

Thanks, I suspect you are probably correct about the delta stuff. It was pretty complicated. I'll warn them that something might be coming their way.

[lepa]

FileFolder() function seems to give wonky results in especially in Linux. Seems to count from wrong direction as far i could understand its faulty logic

[lepa]

Now when looking at the docs, it looks that filefolder works from right to left. From the other thread I assumed the other way round and didn't check the docs. So it seems to work just fine

[mwillems]

Ok, so I reproduced the crash in gdb and I've attached a full log of the gdb session.  The back trace starts around line 2090.  I also simultaneously ran MC's internal logger just in case being able to compare the two might be helpful, and have attached a fresh log of the same session.

To describe exactly how it "looks" from the user side, the UI freezes in the second before the track changes, but MC starts playing the next song even though the UI is frozen.  Then about twenty or so seconds into the second song it crashes.

Hopefully this helps and let me know if you need any additional logging/testing!

[bob]

Ok, so I reproduced the crash in gdb and I've attached a full log of the gdb session.  The back trace starts around line 2090.  I also simultaneously ran MC's internal logger just in case being able to compare the two might be helpful, and have attached a fresh log of the same session.

To describe exactly how it "looks" from the user side, the UI freezes in the second before the track changes, but MC starts playing the next song even though the UI is frozen.  Then about twenty or so seconds into the second song it crashes.

Hopefully this helps and let me know if you need any additional logging/testing!

Thanks. The first thing I noticed is that there is huge number of threads running.
How big is your DB?
Do you have TV entries in it?
This is a linux client and windows server?
Version of MC on the windows server is?

You can get rid of the pretty annoying and useless thread switching messages in gdb by doing this in gdb before you run
set print thread-events off

[mwillems]

Thanks. The first thing I noticed is that there is huge number of threads running.
How big is your DB?
Do you have TV entries in it?
This is a linux client and windows server?
Version of MC on the windows server is?

You can get rid of the pretty annoying and useless thread switching messages in gdb by doing this in gdb before you run
set print thread-events off

It's a linux client and a linux server, both on build 67, both running debian stable.  No windows PCs in the mix at all. 

My db has 135,848 files in it, and yes I have TV entries (just the standard guide views that come with MC, I haven't done any customization to my knowledge).  I use a HDHomerun Prime networked TV Tuner; the server pulls down the guide data and serves it to clients.

Just to be clear I have several other Linux clients attached to the same server that are all behaving normally with build 67.  The main difference is that the working clients are running arch. The PC that's crashing is running debian stable (as is the server).  The only other potential differences I can think of are hardware differences, but I'm not sure how relevant that would be.

[bob]

Bob, this is a linux client and a linux server, both on build 67, both running debian stable.  No windows PCs in the mix at all. 

My db has 135,848 files in it, and yes I also use a HDHomerun Prime TV Tuner.  The server pulls down the guide data and serves it to clients.

Just to be clear I have several other Linux clients attached to the same server that are all behaving normally with build 67.  The main difference is that the working clients are running arch. The PC that's crashing is running debian stable (as is the server).

Thanks for the info.
I think there is something odd about the number of threads running.
What's the difference in installed memory in the crashing client vs the non-crashing ones?

[mwillems]

Thanks for the info.
I think there is something odd about the number of threads running.
What's the difference in installed memory in the crashing client vs the non-crashing ones?

The crashing system has 12GB of RAM, the working systems have a range from 4GB up to 16GB.

Otherwise in terms of hardware, the only other notable things are that the crashing system has an old Sandy Bridge CPU (an i7-2600K) and it's by far the oldest CPU in the house. It's also the only system using NVidia graphics in the house.

Not sure what to say about the threads, but the crashing system does use a fair amount of DSP and convolution, so that might be part of what's making the threads?

[JimH]

The crashing system has 12GB of RAM, the working systems have a range from 4GB up to 16GB.

Otherwise in terms of hardware, the only other notable things are that the crashing system has an old Sandy Bridge CPU (an i7-2600K) and it's by far the oldest CPU in the house. It's also the only system using NVidia graphics in the house.

There's a video problem that I think you're aware of here:  https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,135232.msg937100.html#msg937100

[mwillems]

There's a video problem that I think you're aware of here:  https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,135232.msg937100.html#msg937100

Yep, thanks Jim!  I'm not seeing that particular issue though, thankfully.  Theater view is working normally on that machine, no white screens or anything. 

The crashes seem to happen with audio playback only (like clockwork on every track change) whether I'm in standard view or theater view.

[JimH]

Not sure what to say about the threads, but the crashing system does use a fair amount of DSP and convolution ...

Could you try turning those off?  Just to try to isolate where the problem might be.

[mwillems]

Could you try turning those off?  Just to try to isolate where the problem might be.

Sure Jim!  I just reproduced it with the debug build bob sent me and with convolution and DSP turned off.  I've attached the full backtrace.  Just a heads up, it's an enormous text file when uncompressed (about 40MB uncompressed, but less than 1MB zipped up!)

I can't fully grok the symbols, but it sure looks like something weird is happening in the library sync.

[bob]

Sure Jim!  I just reproduced it with the debug build bob sent me and with convolution and DSP turned off.  I've attached the full backtrace.  Just a heads up, it's an enormous text file when uncompressed (about 40MB uncompressed, but less than 1MB zipped up!)

I can't fully grok the symbols, but it sure looks like something weird is happening in the library sync.

Would you take a look in this directory?
/home/michael/.jriver/Media Center 30/Connected Library/*
MC is trying to glob (the *) the contents of that and it's crashing in a linux system library function. Look for weirdness, use the

Code: [Select]

ls -laR command to show hidden files too.
You may want to try that during playback too
like

Code: [Select]

ls -aR | wc -lto see if the number of files is growing uncontrollably.

edit: added the R to recurse because there are subdirs

[mwillems]

Would you take a look in this directory?
/home/michael/.jriver/Media Center 30/Connected Library/*
MC is trying to glob (the *) the contents of that and it's crashing in a linux system library function. Look for weirdness, use the

Code: [Select]

ls -laR command to show hidden files too.
You may want to try that during playback too
like

Code: [Select]

ls -aR | wc -lto see if the number of files is growing uncontrollably.

edit: added the R to recurse because there are subdirs

Ok, so this is interesting.  I compared the ls output from the crashing system to the non-crashing systems and I noticed that the crashing system had two empty directories with names that had a trailing backslash.  So instead of just having a directory called "Original" the crashing system had both "Original" and "Original\".  It also had a "Delta\" directory but no "Delta".  So I removed the two directories with trailing backslashes and now it seems to play back fine?  Maybe it's a relic from when I migrated the local library on that system across from windows to Linux a while back?

I'll post back if anything crashes, but so far so good.

[bob]

Ok, so this is interesting.  I compared the ls output from the crashing system to the non-crashing systems and I noticed that the crashing system had two empty directories with names that had a trailing backslash.  So instead of just having a directory called "Original" the crashing system had both "Original" and "Original\".  It also had a "Delta\" directory but no "Delta".  So I removed the two directories with trailing backslashes and now it seems to play back fine?  Maybe it's a relic from when I migrated the local library on that system across from windows to Linux a while back?

I'll post back if anything crashes, but so far so good.

That's possible. The path specifiers from the TV delta were wrong which may have initially produced that.
I'm going to send you an updated test link.
Thanks.

[mwillems]

That's possible. The path specifiers from the TV delta were wrong which may have initially produced that.
I'm going to send you an updated test link.
Thanks.

So once I removed the bad directories, test build 69 was running stable for several hours last night, and my family used it for video playback this morning with no issues.  I'm testing test build 70 myself this morning, and so far so stable.  No sign of the directories getting recreated or any crashes after an hour or so.  I'll keep testing and let you know if I get another crash.

Let me know if you want to me to try anything unusual (i.e. like manually recreating the bad directories to see if it still crashes, etc.).

[bob]

So once I removed the bad directories, test build 69 was running stable for several hours last night, and my family used it for video playback this morning with no issues.  I'm testing test build 70 myself this morning, and so far so stable.  No sign of the directories getting recreated or any crashes after an hour or so.  I'll keep testing and let you know if I get another crash.

Let me know if you want to me to try anything unusual (i.e. like manually recreating the bad directories to see if it still crashes, etc.).

Thanks for the feedback. I think we have it and I'm going to make a new release build.